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A great way to travel with GPS guided articles

A great way to travel with GPS guided articles

How many times, while reading a travel article have you thought – “I wish I could have this while I’m actually in the place”? We know that we had this thought many times. Of course, you could bookmark it, but you don’t have internet everywhere. So, it becomes a complicated and rather expensive thing to do.

GPS guided articles

So, now there is actually a new great way that we’ve got to experience…

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#Normandy!! Cities of #Rouen, Homfleur, Etretat and the others.. ❤️🇫🇷 They're the best thing that can happen while travelling through the Northern #France. 👀🚙 Which one of the Normandian beauties did you like the most? ☺🙌🏻 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #Hello_France #France_Focus_On #Loves_France_ #TopFrancePhoto #Super_France #TopRouenPhoto #RouenTourisme (at Rouen, France)

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The beginning of the 20th century was extremely painful for the city of #Ypres (#Belgium). During the World War I, it suffered from a number of serious clashes between German and Allied Armies forces. 😔💥 5 clashes between the years of 1914-1918, to be exact. 💣 Of course, major part of this beautiful city was totally destroyed back then. 😢Therefore, nowadays Ypres is surrounded by old battlefields, war cemetries, memorials and museums built in the memory for those tragical battles. 📜 But, happily, all the significant city #architecture was restored and today we can see it as it was before the World War I - great, majestic and authentic. 😍🙌🏻 Just look at this Cloth Hall! Looks impeccably, doesn't it? #TravelersChild #VisitFlanders #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TravelBelgium #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #TopEuropePhoto (at Ypres, Belgium)

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What is the most majestic #Belgian city for you guys? ☺🇧🇪 For us its #Antwerp. Glorious, wide and spacious avenues; absolutely spectacular railway station; outstanding Grote Markt square; wide and spacious promenades by the river Scheldt. 😍❤️ Not to mention astonishing #architecture of almost every house and building in the city center. Facades look simply magical there! 👀🙌🏻 Yup, Antwerp surely is amazing. #TravelersChild #VisitFlanders #VisitAntwerp #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TravelBelgium #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #TopEuropePhoto (at Grote Markt Antwerpen)

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The view that attracted many of the most famous French impressionist! 😍🎨 Port of #Honfleur (#France) is one of the most picturesque spots that we had a chance to admire this year. ☺🙌🏻 Hope to be back there someday! 🇫🇷 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #Hello_France #TopFrancePhoto #Super_France #Normandie (at Port Honfleur)

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Pierogarnia Mandu: A Taste of Poland in the City of Gdansk

Pierogarnia Mandu: A Taste of Poland in the City of Gdansk

During our stay in Gdansk, the spectacular Poland’s port city, we visited a number of interesting food places. One of those was Pierogarnia Mandu, a modern restaurant which serves not so modern dishes – traditional Polish homemade pierogi. Also known as dumplings! We found Pierogarnia Mandu on TripAdvisor as one of the TOP choices to eat in the center of Gdansk. Considering that we wanted to try…

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This place is called Jardin du Tripot, and it is one of the strangest little parks that we have ever been to. 👀🌳 Located in the heart of #Honfleur (#France), Jardin du Tripot is a small and narrow territory between the old town houses. It is accessible from three different streets, it holds a number of crazy sculptures and even a small curvy river with really very small cascades. 💦🏞 For us it was a surprise to find such a hidden place among the twisty alleys of Honfleur. It seems like Jardin du Tripot is a common neighborhood project, where people decided to make something beautiful out of their old and curvy backyard. And they're managing it creatively! 😍🇫🇷 Sadly it isn't a very popular spot, so every piece of information about it is in French. And that means that we can't google how such a creative public spot was born. Maybe anyone could tell us the story of it? It would be really interesting to hear. ☺🙌🏻 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #Hello_France #TopFrancePhoto #Super_France #Normandie (at Honfleur)

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When it's heavily raining in Lithuania.. This is what we miss the most! 😒🌧 No, not #Paris in general. But the slow and warm summer strolls around the lovely #French cities, towns and villages. ❤️🇫🇷 #France is adorable! Especially with a warm sunny summer weather around. ☺🙌🏻 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #Hello_France #Loves_France_ #TopFrancePhoto #ThisIsParis #ParisJeTaime #VisitParis (at Tour Eiffel)

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One Day Trip to Heidelberg: What to See?

One Day Trip to Heidelberg: What to See?

We visited Heidelberg, Germany in July 2017. Me (P.) and my parents were on our way home from Belgium to Lithuania. We arrived in the evening and left on the next day’s afternoon. Though we did not spend much time here, we felt like we saw what is important in this city. Especially, when for our own surprise we got here during the Heidelberger Schlossbeleuchtung[note]Heidelberg Castle…

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Did you know that World War II started in #Gdansk? Yep. The first shots of Nazi invasion to #Poland were fired in the docks of Gdansk. 💥💣 Also, did you know that it was the city where collapse of the Soviet Union started? 😳💪🏻 Yep, again. This is the hometown of Solidarity movement, the first legal trade unionist movement in the entire Eastern Bloc. Solidarity was the power that led to the collapse of Polish puppet government. 😎🙌🏻 The chaos and strikes spread through the walls of Poland and after a year from the fall of Polish puppets Berlin wall collapsed. 🙉🇵🇱 Amazing! Gdansk is amazing, and its #history is even more amazing. 🤓🙌🏻 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #PolandSights #Poland_Online #PolandPhotos #TopPolandPhoto #ILoveGdn (at ul. Długa)

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We were babbling about #Gdansk too much! 🙈🙊 We even haven't told you about the another great city that we discovered by the #BalticSea in #Poland. 😍🇵🇱 Just 15 km away from Gdansk lies a resort town of #Sopot along with its sandy beaches and lovely promenades. 🌊☀️ Though, the most popular thing here is wide, long and spacious #pier. In fact, it is so popular that city government decided to make a paid entrance there and there are still crowds of people enjoying the stroll on it. 🙌🏻😍 We have to admit, that we weren't very happy about the taxes applied to such a place like main city pier, but we can't even imagine how many people would there be if not that 2 zlot fee. 😅⁉️ Anyway, Sopot is really great and it is a perfect match with its neighbor Gdansk. Relaxation in Sopot is the best thing that can happen after those great architectular #wanderings around the old town of Gdansk. 🙌🏻❤️ #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #PolandSights #Poland_Online #PolandPhotos #TopPolandPhoto #ILoveGdn (at Pier in Sopot)

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For our stay in Gdansk, we picked apartments located in the heart of the city. We lived in Amber Town Apartments for a couple of nights. At the beginning, we were planning to stay for only one night. Due to bad weather and the beauty of this city next day we decided to prolong our stay. That is why we had to switch rooms and eventually, we ended up trying out two rooms in two nights. So, we can be considered as true experts of Amber Town apartments. 😁

Location for our stay in Gdansk

Location is always our main criteria when looking for a place to live. For our stay in Gdansk, we searched for a place that would be in the heart of the city. These apartments, being a couple of streets away from the main square, are in a perfect spot. You can enjoy a good night sleep and be a couple of minutes away from the main attractions.

In addition, the green facade of these apartments is really cool. This house is very memorable and looks great in pictures! 😁

Facilities

Our second most important criteria is a place for parking. Due to an ongoing festival, the place was hard to reach by car. We had to drive through pedestrian streets and it was a bit annoying. The parking lot itself is also far from usual standards. You have to park your car in a nearby residential lot. At first, it does make you feel a bit uncomfortable. It is because you are afraid not to park in some local’s constant parking space.

The small room.

Next, you have the apartments itself. Our first-night stay was in a small room[note]~10 sq. meters[/note], which had a shared bathroom. The bed was also kinda small and not very comfy. But due to a good location, the fact we did not want to look for a new place and a discount that we got we stayed for another night. We were offered the best room in this place for almost the same price as we got the small room.

The new room was really great. It had a big bed, own bathroom and windows to the both sides of the house. We liked it really much.

Eventually, both rooms were clean, though they lacked extra touch.

Service

Studio Lux.

The service was not of the highest quality, but you cannot ask that from apartments. The reception is on the other side of the building, where there is an amber shop. When you need to do something, you need to ask the girls to call the guy, who then solves your problems. We cannot remember the guy’s name, but he is a very nice and friendly fellow. In addition, he speaks very good English.

One thing that seemed strange is that you can lock the apartment entrance from inside and then there is no way for others to get in. Even the guy does not have a key to open that door. If something like that occurs he starts calling everyone who lives in the apartment and asks them to come and unlock the front door.

Value for money

We paid:

50 Euros for the small room;

60 Euros for the big room.

While compared to overall prices in Poland, our stay in Gdansk was not very cheap. Still, when you think that these apartments are in the heart of Gdansk and we stayed here during the time of their biggest festival it is not that expensive.

We consider Amber Town Apartments to provide good value for a really fair price and we would definitely consider staying here during our next time in Gdansk.

Read more about:

Gdansk.

Check Amber Town Apartments on:

Their website;

Booking.com.

Gallery

The small room.

The small room.

Our shared bathroom of the small room.

Our shared bathroom of the small room.

View from our hotel.

Green one was our hotel!

Our shared bathroom of the small room.

Studio Lux.

Studio Lux.

The view from Studio Lux.

The bathroom in Studio Lux.

Studio Lux.

Amber Town Apartments: Our Stay in Gdansk’s Heart For our stay in Gdansk, we picked apartments located in the heart of the city. We lived in Amber Town Apartments for a couple of nights.

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If you have read our latest #blogpost, you have already heard about the biggest brick church in the world. 🙌🏻🤓 With such a status Basilica of St Mary is one of the best things to discover in #Gdansk (#Poland). 👌🏻🔎 And do you know how we some times miss some relevant things during our trips? So this time it was this fact about the Basilica. We acknowledged this only after we were already back home. 😄✌🏻And though we didn't appreciate the building as much as we should have, we sure noticed how beautiful and majestic it is. 😍🙌🏻 Just look at this pic! Here you can see only the piece of the front facade. The back of it is enormous! 😳💪🏻 #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #Living_Europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #PolandSights #ILoveGdn (at Bazylika Mariacka)

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It was more than a month after our return from Belgium back to our home in Lithuania, when we started searching for the destinations that we could visit not only in Lithuania but also in the neighboring countries. We took into consideration a lot of well-known cities of our region, till we decided to choose the one by the Baltic Sea in Poland – the city of Gdansk. And what do you think happened, Dear Reader? We were totally and completely amazed!

Gdansk is a more than thousand years old port city located both, at the mouth of Motlawa River and on the Gdansk Bay by the Baltic Sea. Since it is the biggest and the most significant port city in the country, it is also considered to be the maritime capital of Poland. Its significance, medieval wealthiness, and the previously discussed cultural diversity made it the city like none the others by the Baltic Coast.

Mix of Different Cultures

Marina of Gdansk.

Gdansk is a more than thousand years old port city located both, at the mouth of Motlawa River and on the Gdansk Bay by the Baltic Sea. Since it is the biggest and the most significant port city in the country, it is also considered to be the maritime capital of Poland. Its significance, medieval wealthiness, and the previously discussed cultural diversity made it the city like none the others by the Baltic Coast.

History of Gdansk is mixed and confusing, as also is its spectacular architecture. Once owned by Germans (Prussians), this medieval Polish stronghold had seen and experienced a lot. The most intriguing part of the Gdansk history was not so far back, during the interwar period. At that moment Gdansk was a free, autonomous city under neither Poland nor Germany’s government.  What is more, it was located by the so called Polish Corridor, the only narrow shore of the Baltic Sea that at that time Poland had. Poland’s, Prussia’s, Germany’s and even the city ruled by itself. How interesting the history of Gdansk is!

Gdansk is considered to have the most diverse ethnic composition among all the other cities in Poland. That’s why it is also considered to be the most liberal one and the one with almost completely un-Polish architecture. As much as wavy the story of the city was, diverse sources of cultural influences along with wealthy residents and merchants gave Gdansk the looks that most of the European cities could only dream of. The Main Town and the Old Town of Gdansk are big and continuous. What is more, they are big and spectacular!

Discovering Heart of Gdansk

Exploring the heart of the city.

We started our journey around the city from the heart of it – the Marina of Gdansk. This is where our hotel was and we couldn’t be happier with the location of our accommodation. Marina of Gdansk is a riverside by the Moltawa River lined with colorful tall merchant houses and maritime buildings. The iconic of them is the famous Crane which used to be the biggest medieval harbor crane in Europe. Nowadays it is the part of National Maritime Museum and one of the most usual landmarks on the postcards of Gdansk.

Strolling forward from our hotel, unexpectedly we were swallowed by the lively vibes of the most popular place in the city – the Long Market. Now, if we would have to pick one street that is the most spectacular among all the countries of the Baltic coastline, Long Market would be the winner. Starting from the Green Gate by the riverside, up to the Golden Gate at the end of the street, every house in Long Market is worth describing. Sadly, you there too many of them and if we would start doing it, you would probably lose your attention instantly. But I must mention you at least several of the most spectacular things there! Whole Long Market is framed with tall, but narrow merchant house, where everyone is decorated in a personal, but a really very beautiful way. The most significant monuments in this square/street are the Town Hall and the Neptune’s Fountain. These both landmarks are the symbols not only of the street but also of the whole Gdansk. And with those amazing merchant houses in the background, they both are the perfect spot for capturing the true face of Gdansk.

Some maritime stuff.

The best thing is that the sights don’t get any worse! If you go through the Golden Gate at the end of the Market, you will find yourself in the square next to the Amber Museum, that is housed in a spectacular medieval building with long and strong Prison Tower.

But let’s get back to the curly streets of the Old Town! In the parallel street to the Long Market, stands a majestic St Mary’s Basilica. I mean it – it is truly majestic! St Mary’s is considered to be the largest brick church in the WORLD! And no matter from which side you will try to reach it, you will surely be surprised. All the streets that lead to it are super charming! Though, for my personal taste Mariacka Street was the craziest. 😍

Caught in St. Dominic’s Fever

Gdansk is full of these charming tall houses.

By the time of our visit to Gdansk, the city was in the middle of annual St. Dominic’s Fair. It’s probably the biggest traditional celebration which dates back to the 13th century. August in Gdansk is all about St. Dominic’s. Half of the Main Town is conquered by traditional fair attributes – kiosks with various type of traditional food, souvenirs, clothing and similar type of items. The thing that we liked the most was the street all dedicated to the antiques and vintage flea market stuff.

Nevertheless, all this big and long chain of events was a surprise to us. What is more, since we booked an apartment in the city center, we faced the crowds of people and lines of kiosks at the same moment that we entered the city center. And I won’t lie to you, at first we were a bit disappointed because of St. Dominic’s fever that seemed to cover a major part of the beauty of the architecture. How will we take pics now?! But our biggest fears weren’t reasonable.

Fair took only half of the Main Town, and all the most significant beauty mentioned before wasn’t in any way disturbed. What is more, after some time around the majestic architecture, to get lost around the antique kiosks was quite a new way to admire the liveliness of the city.

Anyway, here both P. and I have something negative to highlight. If you have ever been driving through Poland, you have probably noticed how crazy and unstylish they are with their advertising. Outdoor commercials are everywhere, they are big, bright and most of the time – they look terrible. And though we are quite used to this, we were still sadly surprised to see this unstylishness in the most prestigious fair of such an amazingly beautiful city. What is more, the thing that really triggered me, was the 19th century Market Hall, known as Hala Targowa. The building of the market is superior, both from inside and outside, but the content itself looks cheap and branding of the shops inside took half of the building charm. In my opinion, sometimes it is better to leave such an authentic places alone, without modernizing it in a way that is popular now. The glass shops, brightly-colored ads, and clothing shipped from AliExpress.com doesn’t fit the classy architecture and once again that proofs that Polish aren’t good friends with style.

Full Package of Sights

Green one was our hotel!

Despite those several triggers, Gdansk left us the impression of the most beautiful city in the whole Baltic region. And the most interesting! The thing that is left unmentioned is that Gdansk together with a resort town of Sopot and the port city of Gdynia form a Tri-City, a combination of three interesting cities that are separated by only ~10 kilometers. When you are already full of sights of that spectacular architecture, you can go to chill in the beautiful Baltic beaches in a very charming and lively resort town of Sopot or to go nature-exploring around the locally famous Cliff of Gdynia. And when your vitamin sea reserves are full again, there are a number of parks, green squares, mansions and even more spectacular architecture left to be explored around the heart of Gdansk.

All in all, Dear Reader, Gdansk should be your first and the most important destination by the Baltic Sea. Trust us, you won’t find anything better with such a variety of things to see and experience anywhere around. As for us, we will definitely be back here!

Small part of the biggest brick church in the world!

Mariacka Street.

Facades of the Long Market.

Tall and slim houses of Gdansk.

View from our hotel.

Exploring the heart of the city.

Marina of Gdansk.

Green one was our hotel!

Gdansk is full of these charming tall houses.

Some maritime stuff.

Gdansk: The Most Surprising City by the Baltic Sea It was more than a month after our return from Belgium back to our home in Lithuania, when we started searching for the destinations that we could visit not only in Lithuania but also in the neighboring countries.

[travelerschild-blog]

We're preparing a blog post about our latest trip to #Gdansk (#Poland) for tomorrow, and we found some surprising facts! 💥😳 For example, Gdansk is considered to have distinctively un-Polish architecture, along with the biggest brick church in the #world! 🙉🙌🏻 Also, have you ever heard anything about its history? During its rich past, Gdansk was held under the governments of Poland, Germany, Prussia, and two times during this past 200 years it even had a Free City status. 🤓📖 The best thing is that you can see all this diverse history carved, painted and written on the facades of this spectacular city. 😍❤️ Stay tuned for an article from this super interesting city! #TravelersChild #LoveTheWorld #living_europe #BeautifulDestinations #GetOlympus #TopEuropePhoto #VSCO #BestCityBreaks #CBViews #PolandSights #ILoveGdn (at Gdansk, Poland)

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As we all know, discovering a cozy vintage bookstore is one of the most magical things that can happen while exploring a new city. Somehow a huge concentration of books placed in one room makes every place look super interesting. And super fragrant! There is no better smell, like the smell of book paper, isn’t it?

So it happens, that this one special bookstore in Kaunas managed to connect all the known facts about people and their love for authentic bookstores. They took all the classy ingredients, as vintage wooden book shelves, the fragrance of fresh books, and combined it with two things that are missing in the usual bookstores – an opportunity to have a cup of coffee and a piece of a tasty pie while deciding which book to buy. And this is how Ministry of Books was born!

In addition, we had a couple of guests from Vilnius (Lithuania) and Bangkok (Thailand) visiting Kaunas at the end of July 2017 and this cafe was definitely the place to show. It also happens that one of our guests – Anna – is a travel blogger in Thailand, so she also had something to say about this place!

Location

Every tourist will easily find Ministry of Books while wandering around the streets of Kaunas. It is located on Freedom Avenue, the longest pedestrian street in Europe, next to the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. And though it is 1,5 kilometers away from the old town, the location of the Ministry can easily be called as the heart of the city.

Together with this prestigious location comes many advantages! It is easy to reach by foot or bike from most of the significant landmarks of Kaunas. And the best thing is that you don’t need to do any detours! While walking or cycling towards Ministry of Books, you will be going through many of the most significant parts of the city. Also, it is easy to reach by car or public transport. The parking spaces and public transport stations are several hundred meters away, and the only worst thing about the location is that most of the time the parking will be paid everywhere around the cafe. Though not on the weekends!

Atmosphere

The interior is just amazing!

Books mixed up with the classy art deco interior along with the coffee tables everywhere around, make Ministry of Books the coziest and the most magical both, coffee and book store in town. When you enter the place, you find yourself surrounded by renewed vintage wooden book shelves filled with various types of books and cool souvenirs. What is more, we really liked the cupboards above and below the book shelves. It gives you the feeling of a cozy living room more than of a public store! What is more, this feeling heightens when a random visitor starts playing the piano. And while also doing it like a pro!

The mix of books, vintage wood decor, and coffee are the key factors why the atmosphere here receives the highest possible rate from us. And since it is one of the most magical places in town, L. would like to highlight that it could also be ranked as the one with the best atmosphere in town! P. says that with its art deco style, Ministry of Books resurrects the mood of the prosperous interwar period. By doing that, it could be named as the place where the true soul of Kaunas is revived!

Service

The staff is really good here. Though we hadn’t got any questions about the books or souvenirs, the bartender was really nice[note]and with a good sense of humor![/note]. She helped us to choose the best piece of a pie. What is more, the staff doesn’t bother you here. It lets you feel here more like in the living room than in the public store. Though it can be a disadvantage for those who like receiving the attention from the store staff.

Coffee

Coffee was good, but surely not the best in town. Actually, even a bit bitter. Though we have to admit that piece of Oreo cake fixed everything! The best thing about the coffee was its size. You can choose from three options and the biggest one is really, really BIG. You could slowly enjoy it for a long period of time while reading a book or working on your laptop. And by doing that you have a proper reason not to leave the Ministry of Books for awhile!

Price

Well, when talking about the prices, you can easily find many places that would offer you a tastier cup of coffee or a bigger variety of books for a lower price. But considering the atmosphere which Ministry of Books offers to its visitors, the prices seem good. Especially for such consumers like us. We believe that the places that invest more in making the simple bookstore concept into such an extraordinary one, must receive much more appreciation from its visitors.

Latte:

Small – 2 Eur;

Medium – 2,5 Eur;

Big – 3,5 Eur.

Desserts:

Mascarpone Cheesecake[note]Which was really good![/note] – 3,5 Eur.

Anna’s Thoughts about Ministry of Books

Our cozy afternoon at this cafe also left our guest Anna with a huge impression!

I loved this place! It gave a warm and restful vibe of a book store with the sense of comfort of being at home snuggling in bed with a blanket. The books are diverse with both English and Lithuanian and of many subjects and genres. The coffee and cake were good. There was someone playing the piano and it’s a perfect place to hang out on a typical rainy day in Kaunas.

Check Anna out on:

Ohmissannabella.com

Instagram

Check Ministry of Books out on:

Facebook

Instagram

Gallery

The wonderful exterior.

Welcome to Ministry of books.

The interior is as amazing!

Cup of coffee. (Picture by Anna)

What’s better than a cafe and a bookstore together?

Books, books everywhere!

The smell of coffee and books…

Ministry of Books: Experience the Soul of Kaunas As we all know, discovering a cozy vintage bookstore is one of the most magical things that can happen while exploring a new city.

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Budapest Through the Eyes of a Local Indonesian Fabio

Budapest Through the Eyes of a Local Indonesian Fabio

Usually, our interviews are with locals, who were born and raised in certain cities. This time things got a little bit more interesting! Through our Instagram community, we got in touch with Fabio, who is originally from Indonesia. He has been living in Budapest for almost a year and considers himself a local in the Hungarian capital. It seemed interesting to interview someone from a different…